Western’s Smokehouse currently produces about 40,000 of its award-winning snack sticks a day and while many of those sticks will be sold as Western’s own, the majority will be sold and relabeled by other snack companies across the world.

But despite the relabeling, each Adair County-made meat stick boasts a USDA-inspected stamp and its identifying number of “2929.”

“That’s our claim to fame,” said Sam Western, owner and founder of Western’s, of the meat sticks.

The smokehouse started as a local meat processor 35 years ago and it wasn’t until the meat market started to change that the butcher house adapted, as well.

And with the meat stick market, both its own label and third parties fueling the company’s success, it has made crucial contracts with distributors across the world including most recently the largest distributor of meat snacks in the U.K.

The smokehouse also secures domestic contracts, as well, with a potential agreement nearly finalized to sell 3 million summer sausages to a state prison system annually.

New technology like video chatting and e-mail have allowed Western’s, which also has a website, to do business across the world.

For Western, with Greentop as his lifelong home, its access to fresh beef and pork has also contributed greatly to the shop’s success and its secret to meat stick production.

Since switching to meat products about 10 years ago, business has boomed, increasing 30 to 50 percent for the past five years.

Employment has gone up as well, with the shop currently employing 33 full-time workers, up from 16 five years ago and five when it first started.

“You really don’t have to be in L.A. or New York to do what we’re doing,” Western said.